Haiti recalls deadly quake

Sunday

Jan 13, 2013 at 12:01 AMJan 13, 2013 at 8:19 AM

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Former President Bill Clinton flew to Haiti yesterday to join the country's president,

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Former President Bill Clinton flew to Haiti yesterday to join the country's president,Michel Martelly, at an official commemoration of the third anniversary of the earthquake that decimated the capital and killed more than 250,000 people.

The wreath-laying memorial was held at a mass-burial site on a barren hillside on the outskirts of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, where neither Clinton, the U.N.'s special envoy for Haiti, nor Martelly made speeches.

Earlier yesterday, Haiti's government marked the occasion with a low-key ceremony on the grounds of the razed national palace in Port-au-Prince. In a short address, Martelly paid homage to the memories of those who died and to the courage of those who survived.

"A little more lonely, a little more vulnerable," Martelly said. "I express to you my compassion."

He addressed donors and aid organizations, thanking them and promising that the reconstruction effort would be closely evaluated to avoid waste and corruption. "I understand your concern," he said.

Martelly also announced a new building code, saying that a tragedy like that of 2010 wouldn't happen again.

Three years after the earthquake struck, reconstruction has been slow, and barely half of the $5 billion pledged by donors has been delivered.

More than 350,000 earthquake victims are still living in camps, many under the threat of eviction, with little relief in sight. Only about 6,000 houses have been built since the earthquake.

There are signs of progress. About 80 percent of the rubble has been removed, and some long-term development projects in Haiti's north have begun in recent months, including a $300 million industrial park in Caracol and an expansion of Cap Haitien's airport.

More than 80 schools have been built by Jamaica-based cellphone company Digicel, and a modern teaching hospital, built by the charity Partners in Health, was opened in the central Haitian town of Mirebalais.

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